Capturing an event in history

Trainee teachers studying our (Secondary) History PGCE recently had fun exploring how to use stop motion video to capture an event in history or change over time.

Michael Edwards, Technical Demonstrator for the School of Education, led the session and explained how history teachers can team up with the DT department to create simple ‘tripods’ which pupils can rest their phone on. Often teachers will need to ask permission for pupils to use their own phones in the session if the school does not have ipads.

Students were asked to made their own stories and props and tasked with filming clips of about two minutes taking 12 frames per second. One group depicted the Spanish Armada and the other group demonstrated the changes in castles.

The student teachers loved the session, finding that they were motivated to teach themselves details about the event so that they could create accurate flags and illustrate, for instance, exactly how the Spanish Armada fled.

“It was a great way to learn history. I actually don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”

Gabrielle Rowles, course leader, said: “It was a good way to observe how setting an activity which is enjoyable and different will actually encourage focused historical research which otherwise might have seemed like a chore.

“Getting the details right in the props heled the trainees to understand how to create a ‘sense of place’ for that era. The clips were great too.”

Find out more about studying (Secondary) History PGCE at the University of Brighton.